History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 4

History - Essay Example According to him, â€Å"The main problem was that in giving free reign to ethnic claims the European map came to resemble a patchwork mosaic which had no real coherence and which shattered the balance of power that had prevailed in the nineteenth century† (Mitchell 147). He asserts that in the early 1920s, the political and economic situation in Europe was fragmented and it became a conducive place for the outbreak of World War II. He cites the two main defects of the Treaty of Versailles are: it did not give satisfaction to any country, and that there was no strong leader to back it up. France was not happy about the compensation and the security issue, while Germany was suffering from the harsh treatment inflicted on it by the winning countries, and Italy was a victim of unfulfilled promises of territory in exchange for joining the war. The other countries under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the new and reconstituted states also had their own grievances. Because of these g rievances, the countries were divided and were never united. Aldcroft continues to assert that the Allied statesmen did not do a good job in clearing the mess after the World War I. 1 If they had done a good job, then Europe would have been more stable than fragmented. Moreover, he declares that the Allies were also disunited themselves and have different self interests and concerns. They were more concerned about their own welfare than that of Europe. On the contrary, Mark Mazower, in â€Å"Two Cheers for Versailles,† History Today (July 1997), does not support the idea that the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for the outbreak of World War II. According to him, â€Å"If we want to find guidance in the past for how to tackle the problems of nationalism that remain in Europe, we cannot do better than return to the diplomats who gathered in Paris eighty years

The theory of risk aversion and its utilization by the insurance Essay

The theory of risk aversion and its utilization by the insurance companies - Essay Example This paper outlines the theory of risk aversion, and explains how insurance companies are successfully utilizing this theory to receive substantial amount of profit conducting their activities. Risk aversion is a theory that explains why people are willing to buy insurance. Risk averse means is a situation whereby individuals are willing to pay some money in order to avoid playing a risky game; this takes place even when the expected game value is in this individuals favor. A risk averse individual tends to pay more than the expected value of a game that will let him or her avoid a risk Indemnity is a principle of insurance that states puts it clearly that an insured person will only get compensation if there is a risk occurrence. On the other hand if the event does not occur then the insured will not get any compensation whether money or property. In this case the insurance company will benefit a lot since all the premiums paid will remain as the company’s revenue. The pay off expected by the insured is always less than the premiums he pays; this puts the insurance company in a better position making it a booming business with minimal chances of loss occurrence The big advantage with the insurance company is that it can play games severally and leap much benefits associated with the law of large numbers. The more people the insurance company insures the more it the more it will collect money to cater for administrative costs as well as profits. There is also a numerical illustration in the paper, that helps to bring out the meaning of the theory of risk aversion. The mathematical example makes this theory more intelligible. o the insured it is also obvious that the bigger the pool the smaller the individuals risk of losing large amount of money ,at the same time the less the expected premiums. The Friedman-Savage sought to know why is it that people will buy both insurance and lottery tickets against losses. His view was that this behavior of people was making them both risk averse and risk loving. The answer to this is the fact that a section of the utility function is convex while the other part is concave. Individuals wish to play it safe across the lower range but very much willing to take gambling on the lower and upper parts Illustration A group of thirty people are willing to pay 120 pounds to avoid a risk of losing 15000 pounds. The group can all join together to form a mutual insurance company, collect 120 pounds from each member and pay 15000 pounds to anyone amongst the group who is unlucky and loses coming out ahead. The more people join this mutual insurance company the more the money for its administrative costs and more returns will be realized. By joining this mutual insurance company it shows that the participants are risk averse. The individual's elasticity is . Utility is an indicator of how many percentage points one thing changes as a result of a one percent change in something that affects it.

Academic and Professional Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Academic and Professional Development - Essay Example A scholar-practitioner is a person that is actively involved in various types of research practices aimed at enhancing the success of the profession. It is important to realise that evidence-based research and good theory are both essential ingredients for great and effective leadership. Scholar-practitioners that often excel in their research activities often end up becoming great and inspiring leaders for companies that they work for; they are great people managers with profound knowledge and skills that enhances the success of their work. According to Cavalieri & Mark (2013) academic theory has the potential to get out of touch if it is not refined and tested by those realities of contemporary daily practice. If the ideas of the scholar do not have the capability to hold up complexities that lead in the present global economy, then their value beyond the academic journal is very low or unavailable. In this regard, scholar practitioners have to ensure that they understand and implement some of the lasting values that guide academic integrity, some of which have been outlined by Walden (Cavalieri & Mark 2013). Wladen’s values have had a profound effect on the learning community in that they enable learners to know how to develop better content that can be used in clinical and other disciplines, having been developed with due regard to academic integrity. Using the knowledge I have gathered from Walden’s values regarding professional and scholarly writing, I look forward to improving my writing skills, which will involve acknowledging other peoples academic works that I will use in my research and writing processes. Going into the future, I have learnt how to improve in my research and writing, things that were seemingly challenging in the past. Being at Walden has been an important undertaking that has heavily impacted on my academic and professional development. As far as communication is concerned, I realise that for

Bureaucratic and Normative Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Bureaucratic and Normative Control - Essay Example Actually hierarchy in general (in the sense of levels of authority) is to be found in any administration which has a certain degree of magnitude and complexity. The feudal type of administration had a complicated hierarchical system. (Davis, 1994, p73) 'There is hierarchy of a social rank corresponding to the hierarchy of fiefs through the process of sub-infatuation...' 6 But the difference between the two kinds of hierarchies, according to Weber, is to be found in the type of authority relations. In the feudal case the relationship between inferior and superior is personal and the legitimating of authority is based on a belief in the sacredness of tradition. In a bureaucracy, authority is legitimised by a belief in the correctness of the rules and the loyalty of the bureaucrat is oriented to an impersonal order, to a superior position, not to the person who holds it. So what makes an administration more or less bureaucratic from the hierarchical point of view is not the number of le vels of authority, or the size of the span of control; the decisive criterion is whether or not the authority relations have a precise and impersonal character, as a result of the elaboration of rational rules. Concerning first the criterion of meaningful adequacy, it does not necessarily make sense to someone that a type of organisation having the Weberian characteristics to an extreme degree should yield maximum efficiency. One could equally well imagine such an organisation as being extremely inefficient. For example, some of these characteristics, even from a common sense point of view, seem to promote administrative inefficiency rather than efficiency (e.g. promotion by seniority). As to the criterion of objective possibility, in the light of the empirical research done since Weber, one can argue that a perfectly rational-efficient organisation having Weber's ideal characteristics is not objectively possible, in the sense that it runs against the known laws of nature -- in this case, against recent empirical findings. Such findings rather indicate that the more accentuated some characteristics of the ideal type are, the more inefficient the organisation becomes. In one sense, a great part of the literature on bureaucracy since Weber

The Berlin Blockade Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

The Berlin Blockade - Research Paper Example During World War ii, Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union banded together to form the allied powers in order to fight and overcome Germany.   The war was brutal and left devastation in its wake.   After the war, the main question was what to do with conquered Germany.   The Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States convened at Potsdam in Berlin for a conference which lasted from 16 July until 2 August. 1945.   This was the third conference held by the allies after the war in which decisions were taken as how to restore Europe and deal with Germany.   The leaders who attended were: Stalin of the Soviet Union, Truman of the United States and Churchill of Britain who was replaced by Attlee who had become the new Prime Minister of Britain.   Already, the tension was displayed between the Soviet Union who practiced Communism and the Western powers who had adopted Capitalism.   The Potsdam Agreement was signed during the conference, which led to the cre ation of a four-power allied control council [ACC] to govern Germany.   The allied council was made up of Britain, The Soviet Union, The United States, and France.   They were each given a zone in Germany to govern.   Berlin, the capital of Germany, fell within the Soviet Union’s zone; fearing that The Soviet Union would gain an advantage by this, the other three powers insisted that Berlin is divided into four separate sections. The Soviet Union’s zone was mainly made up of fertile agricultural land that produced most of Germany’s food; while, the British and the United States’ zones were more industrial in nature and had to rely on foodstuff from The Soviet Union.   The allies planned to limit Germany’s industrial capacity in order to ensure that it would never again be able to achieve remilitarization.   Britain, who occupied the zone least capable of conducting agriculture, disagreed with this resolution and fought for a greater indus trial output by Germany, tightly controlled by the allies, so that Germany may become a major trading partner.   Due to the lack of an agreement on this matter, each country administered its zone as it saw fit.  

Quality and Problem Solving (global tourism management) Essay

Quality and Problem Solving (global tourism management) - Essay Example The organization has successfully captured a favorable contract from a tour operator in the United Arab Emirates and will be receiving a significant proportion of guests. The customers are Emirati guests who espouse a culture highly divergent from western orientations. The challenge is to determine how to successfully address the quality issues in such an arrangement. Before venturing into determining what is required in addressing the needs of the Emirati (citizens of United Arab Emirates) guests, the driving philosophy should first be identified. The staff of the Royal Edwardian Hotel should adopt a quality policy that stresses service quality as opposed to value for price paid or maximum profit. The relationship between service quality and business performance has long been established in hospitality (Hakes, 1991; Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998; Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Researchers such as Caruana (2002), Cronin and Taylor (1992) and Teas (1994) have shown that service quality is antecedent to customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is antecedent to customer loyalty (Bloemer and Kasper, 1995; Caruana, 2002; McDougall and Levesque, 2000). In the hotel industry, service quality is considered as defined and the discerning customer will evaluate quality and develop satisfaction or dissatisfaction in each encounter (Bitner et al., 1990). As hotel experience is made up of individual discrete encounters, it is important to make sure that everything is perfect (Min et al, 2002). The quality management scheme should therefore emphasize gathering and interpreting correctly the traits and characteristics of the customer. It is important to survey the Arab customers to find what they are specifically looking for in a Royal Edwardian Hotel stay. The hotels should determine customer expectations regarding a British hotel experience. According to Clow & Vorhies (1993), the customer forms expectations through a

Executive Briefing Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Executive Briefing - Research Paper Example There are several reasons for which strategic planning is implemented in the department and its many organizations. This executive paper explores the importance of strategic planning to the Department of Homeland Security and its organizations. However, it is important that the meaning of strategic planning is first understood, more so in the context of the department and its agencies. In essence, strategic planning refers to the mechanisms established to indicate the direction an organization intends to take in a specified period. In addition, strategic planning entails the processes and activities by which an organization will attain its objectives within the target period and the indicators of the attainment of the set objectives (Allison & Kaye, 2005). Unlike business plans, which focus on specific programs or products, strategic planning covers an entire organization’s vision, mission, interests, and goals. A number of models and approaches to strategic planning are used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The determinants on the models of strategic planning to be applied by a given organization include an agency’s leadership, complexity, planner expertise, organizational culture, structure, size, and environment (Allison & Kaye, 2005). Recognizing the importance of strategic planning, the department established the office of strategic plans with the mandate to express the department’s and its Secretary’s vision, mission, goals, objectives, and priorities. This role of articulating these priorities helps the department to plan for the creation of products that meet client needs using the available resources economically (Homeland Security, 2012). There are several pillars that drive the office of the strategic plans to achieve its goals. These principles include the responsibility to promote inter-departmental/organizational collaborations,